I just got home from an Iron Mask concert at Hasselt. Quite a lot of stuff happened, so I thought I'd post it here. There were two bands and they'd play from 19 30 to 22 00. My last train back was at 22 22 so I knew it was going to be close, but in the end decided to go anyway. I had spent the night in a station before to see this band, but back then it was unavoidable (leaving early would have meant I would miss the likes of Gamma Ray, Edguy, Rage, Hammerfall, Europe...)My train arrived at 17 45 at the right track. There was no communication, the train guy was nowhere to be seen, the people in my vicinity I asked were as clueless as I was, so I got on the train. Turns out this was a different train, one that arrived on the same track without announcement one minute earlier.I got out immediately and took the first train back. In the short time I'd been gone, the info signs I needed to plot a new course had been taken down. Luckily this time a train guy did show himself.Arriving in Hasselt Station, I suddenly heard screaming as I was coming down the escalator. Around the corner, I thought I saw someone fall and a girl was screaming STOP IT STOP IT hysterically. A fight, thus. I looked around and saw a train woman was already calling the cops, so I didn't interfere. When I left the station a short time later, I saw a guy outside with a bleeding head and blood all the way down to his elbow. I found the place easily. Luckily, Iron Mask was the second band to play and despite being late for the first band I wouldn't miss anything. It was a really intimate gig, with less than a hundred people, but no less fun for it. The gig was good, so of course they exceeded their time. I really had to watch the clock, and at 22:13 I decided to leave. No idea if they played another song after I left, but they had already said it was over twice so I guess I didn't miss too much. I had to literally sprint back to the station to get back in time and people were throwing me weird looks.I cheered when I made it in time, and if looks could kill the train guy had turned me to ash on the spot. As I sat down I realized I was in the wrong train! So I ran to the right track and again made it, only just in time.At one of the first stops, the train had a 15 minute delay. This was to ensure passengers from another train could get onto it. The train guy told me the train I had to get on probably wouldn't wait for me.I made it, again right on time, onto the train that'd take me home. Just as I reached my bike, a storm hit. I'm talking about the kind of storm that hits after 5 days of sunny weather. I decided to wait it out because getting electrocuted would be a rather shocking end to my day.As I stood waiting, a shirtless guy suddenly sprinted by. Apparently he was getting to his car, but I had no idea why he was shirtless in the middle of a storm. Really weird.It just kept pouring, so I decided to brave the rain anyway.I was going as fast as I could because it was raining, and it was also freaking dark. A guy riding on the wrong side of the road almost crashed into me. By that time I was fed up and not so politely informed him he should be riding on the other side of the road. I once got a fine for that myself, but at least I was making sure not to crash into someone. For a second I thought he was coming after me, but apparently he wasn't.My street is pitch black at night, so I drove straight into a fresh hole in the street, luckily I'm awesome and managed to avoid a fall.Coming home rarely felt so good.All in all, a great day out, although I do feel kinda bad for the guy who got beat up, regardless of how or why it happened.

Use earplugs, trust me, it's worth it. I have a light case of tinnitus in my right ear (acquired at a concert a few years back where I didn't have earplugs) right now that won't go away and while I can live with it it's still pretty nasty at times.

I saw Iron Mask again the day after I opened this thread (much closer to home this time), and it was grand, the only sad thing was that the set was too short. I hope to go see Grave Digger this Saturday, depending on how things work out.